Iranian Elections

Iranians have voted in record number in the country’s presidential election today.



Long queues formed at voting centers and Iran’s Interior Ministry has said voting numbers have approached near the 80 per cent set in the 1997 election.



The Reuters News Agency reports that persons had to wait for more than two hours to cast their ballots.



Officials have declared the election’s frontrunners to be Mirhossein Mousavi and current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.



A victory for Mousavi might help ease tensions with the West as US President Barack Obama has talked about a new start in ties with the nation’s capital Tehran.



Tehran is Mousavi’s stronghold.



The vote has generated interest around the world with policymakers looking for signs of a change in approach by Tehran, whose ties with the West has worsened under Ahmadinejad.